Having taken a pure and classical approach to animation education, Bangalore based ‘TAKSHAA – Academy of the Artist’ has achieved a first of sorts, with its indigenously developed program receiving the internationally renowned Edexcel accreditation. TAKSHAA is now an independent BTEC center and now offers the Accredited by Edexcel certification to all its students. In addition, TAKSHAA is planning to offer the prestigious HNC (Higher National Certificate) in the future.

“At Takshaa, we have always put in 100% effort to ensure that our students have access to the best resources that we can provide. From the best faculty, infrastructure and training to now the accreditation we have made sure that our students are always on the cutting edge. The Edexcel accreditation to our program validates our approach and training methodology. We can now ensure that our students have a qualification accredited by an awarding body that is recognized in over 110 countries including the US and UK. This makes Takshaa currently the only college in the country to offer such a qualification.” Shared Takshaa Founder Manu Ittina.

“We had to go through some very extensive processes and quality checks for this accreditation. Edexcel went through every single aspect of our program through a fine toothed comb and ensured that the training we provide is at par with the best in the world. This process which took almost a year and half was worth it as there are now many advantages that we can offer to our students. Getting bank loans and scholarships is now a breeze. Also this accreditation has made it more conducive for our International partners as it validates our approach. Most importantly it highlights the past success we have had with our students. ” he added.

Manu further shared that Takshaa did not import curriculum from the UK but got its own originally designed program accredited. This is another first for India. “This was due to the incredible efforts of our Principal and teachers who always ensured that students had always access to professional training on par with the rest of world.”

Edexcel, a Pearson company, is the UK’s largest awarding body offering academic and vocational qualifications to schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning in the UK and internationally.

“We are indeed pleased to be working with Takshaa- Academy of the Artist by accrediting their program. Edexcel’s accreditation service is extended to training organisations that combine excellent course structure with a rigorous delivery process. Edexcel’s accreditation is a mark of quality benchmarking a program to international standards. Takshaa is the first animation school anywhere in the world to get our accreditation for their program and we were actually surprised at how little they had to change to pass our stringent quality audit,” shared Jason Gregory, International Commercial Development Manager, Edexcel.

“It was on the basis of the strength of their program and the reputation that they have built, that we decided to accredit Takshaa’s course in animation. Edexcel as an awarding body is held in high esteem world-wide and quality assurance of a program through accreditation denotes its international structure. Accreditation of a program is based on strict audit processes and students can be assured of sound education and a quality stamp from an internationally recognised brand upon undertaking this course,” added Sami Baig, Regional Director- Indian Subcontinent, Edexcel.

For more info log on to www.takshaa.com

Take a look at the student work uploaded into the gallery, surf on to our YouTube Channel and Facebook Fan page,  ask questions, explore and try and get a taste of what makes Takshaa no. 1 rated and the only independently and internationally accredited animation school in the country.

We are happy that you are considering TAKSHAA and we are very excited to welcome you to our community of extremely passionate artists. Last date to submit applications is June 9th 2009. Applications for admissions for most programs are considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

For any other specific questions contact admissions@takshaa.com or +91-99451 37770

Posted: 2006-05-20 00:00:00+05:30 IST
Updated: May 20, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST

: The Ittina Animation Studios is a studio with state-of-the-art creative, technical and production capabilities and the goal to foster a new generation of animation storytelling in India.

Manu Ittina, who set up the studio in October 2005 in India, has worked with Dreamworks on Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Shrek 2’ and ‘Madagascar’. Takshaa, the new educational division of the studio can accommodate up to 250 students and boasts of a state-of-the-art lab equipped with 100 high-end workstations.

Takshaa, spread across 15,000 sq feet, has the potential to become one of the largest computer animations schools in the country. According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), India has presently a very thin slice of the $50 billion global animation industry pie, at about 300 million.

But this is expected to increase to about $1.5 billion by end-2006. A studio for animation and graphics require huge investments and trained manpower to deliver high-quality, creative output. It requires the best of processors and high-end PCs or workstations to accelerate the creative process, be upgradeable in the long run and process large amounts of data quickly.

The challenge before Ittina was to install systems that can provide fast and superior performance for long hours. After a detailed market research, Ittina decided to install 50+ HP 9300 workstations. These machines are high performance PCs which run on AMD’s dual-core Opteron processors.

Ittina required machines that were easier to switch from single core to dual core, had usable dual core technology and provided competitive costing. Autodesk— Maya— software is the world’s most powerfully integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects and rendering solution. Performance of Maya on the machine was a big question. Ittina required a workstation with significant advantages in power saving; the creative team needed superior technology which was easy and fast to work on — thereby enhancing their productivity. Inspite of having worked on the competitive processor platform, Manu decided to install AMD’s Opterons. These processors were tailor-made to suit his requirements and were optimum for his needs. At Ittina, all AMD-based machines are specifically used for production as they are high-end systems. Ittina uses Maya for production and Maya’s performance has been recorded to be superior on AMD systems as compared to competitor systems. After discussion with AMD India and a technology briefing by AMD’s marketing and technical team, his decision was made.

The AMD Opteron was highly recommended among friends and experts in.

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Rasheed Kappan

Photo: AP

Watching illustrated characters get life, walk, run, talk, act like all of us is a fascinating sight to behold.

Movies of the likes of Finding Nemo, Bug’s Life and Toy Story had our hearts go out for those adorable moving figures. Behind these remarkably enticing works of art lies a dynamic, extremely creative field called animation.

If you have the imagination, the drive to make art jump to life, the field has tremendous potential. Of course, only if you are a professional trained in the intricacies of the ever-evolving subject.

For students looking out for good training schools, there are many already in the city, State and beyond. The latest to join the animation bandwagon is Takshaa, a school offering certificate courses at the introductory, intermediate and advanced levels. Located on the outskirts of Bangalore, on Whitefield Road, Takshaa is run by a big gathering of professional animators, modellers, lighters and visual effects artists.

In the beginner’s how-to course, students are taught the basics of Computer Graphics and Animation. The course covers the first steps of the entire animation spectrum. Students are introduced to modelling (polygon, nurbs and subdivision), basics of light & shade and basic rigging. Students will have to complete a 10-second project using the skills learnt under this course.

The overall objective of the Animation curriculum is to ensure that students can master basic principles in acting, weight timing, lip sync etc. The course covers different levels of animation study across Animation Aesthetics and Animation Physics.

The course on Modelling (Digital Sculpting) covers digital paint, rotoscoping, digital compositing and advanced compositing.

The programme on `Game Asset Creation’ is designed to help students create production-ready game assets. This includes environments, characters and creatures, besides hard surface modelling.The programme on Light and Shade is about exposing students to the magic of lighting. At the end of the course, students would know how different is lighting for animation from lighting for real life; and the tools required to recreate light and shade on the computer.

Visual Effects is a course that offers students an overview of rotoscoping and digital paint effect procedures for film and television production. Topics included are wire removal, articulated mattes, plate restoration, plate extension and paint animation. In addition to these, students will have to undergo a mandatory foundation course in Art. Here, they are exposed to Form, Perspective, Anatomy, Composition and Colour.

All the courses are of three-month duration. Each course in Animation, Modelling, Game Asset Creation, Light and Shade and Visual Effects will be conducted thrice a week. This will include a three-hour session and two, two-hour assisted classes. Art courses are conducted once a week. Students could coordinate their applications by mail through

admissions@takshaa.com

Website: www.takshaa.com

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DREAM WORK: Manu Ittina. Photo: Murali Kumar K. Manu Ittina, director of Ittina studio, an animation studio in Bangalore returned from Dreamworks, after a five year stint in Hollywood, to set up Takshaa, an animation training institute. Education Plus quizzed him on the scope of the industry in India.

What prompted you to give up a career in DreamWorks and return to India?

India, with its artistically rich and diverse culture has tremendous potential to make good animation. The industry here is relatively young and has a promising future and I feel that I am gaining a lot by coming back here. I have worked for various high quality animation films and have even received onscreen credit for Shrek 2 and Madagascar as Character Animator and I wanted to bring the same quality focus and high end work to this country. I can now use this opportunity to tell our Indian stories to the world in a manner that is respected and loved. In this sense I have not really given up on a career but taken it a step further.

Is the school affiliated to any international university? Where does it derive its syllabus/curriculum from?

The school syllabus is designed in consultation with working professionals from major companies around the world. The environment in which the students are taught is that of any high quality production house. The faculty at Takshaa has extensive international experience and while planning the syllabus their experience of working with major international studios was of immense consequence.

Will students get jobs outside Ittina Animation Studios? Or is the school meant only as a training ground for employees?

The school is a resource for every animation company in the world. We train our students to be the best at what they do. As we have a focus of high quality work at Ittina Animation Studios we tend to hire students from Takshaa as we know they are capable of executing high quality work. We guarantee employment (with minimum salary of Rs. 20,000) to all our graduates. We have also tied up with a major gaming company that plans to employ close to 200 students from Takshaa.

What exactly are the areas covered by the course offered by the animation school? What are the other options available to students after the course?

We offer specialisation in animation, with options in character animation, visual effects, modeling, texturing and games. These are in-depth program. In most cases, those who come to Takshaa want to get jobs in the animation field, but we provide people with the option of short film production as well.

How expensive is the programme? And how does one apply?

The fees depend on the kind of classes the student opts for. You can contact admissions@takshaa.com or call +91-9945277700 or +91-9945137771 for more details about course fee and the application process.

SUDHISH KAMATH

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PHOTO: K. GOPINATHAN

DRAWING INSPIRATION Their hearing impairment has not in any way dampened their enthusiasm for learning

Their lines are lucid and they are most articulate with the pencil firmly tucked between their fingers or the mouse under their palm. Harsh Todi, Nupur Mehul Gandhi, Mathew Kurian, and Anvitha Arun are a tight-knit group of students who thoroughly enjoy their artwork at Takshaa Academy for The Artist — an animation school in Whitefield.

The fact that they have different levels of speech and hearing impairment has not in any way dampened their enthusiasm and love for animation, drawing, and an exciting career possibility in this thriving field. When they approached Takshaa for admissions and had their portfolios reviewed, Executive Director Manu Ittina was totally blown away. “They all showed such pronounced imagination abilities. There is an aspect of art which is supposed to be therapeutic, and so their creativity is more pronounced,” says Manu.

Art and mythology

The youngest of the lot, Nupur, is barely 16 and straight out of school, which she completed in the National Open School module. She loves cartoon characters and enjoys creating animation on the computer. She plays tennis and loves football. Nupur hopes to go seriously into game designing. With Anvitha’s help she tells us how she is deeply interested in art history, especially Egyptian art and Greek mythology that she is studying as part of her foundation art course.

As part of the course, they have a class where they read up for ideas, delving often into Greek mythology for inspiration, offers Vidya Shetty, their Principal. She goes on to explain how all these four special students use lip-reading techniques during theory classes to catch the lectures. “Fellow students have also got used to their communication patterns and even repeat parts of lectures that they haven’t understood for them.” As part of the course, the students also get an experience of theatre, painting and storytelling, where they pick up a mix of skills and disciplines necessary for later specialised courses. “We haven’t separated them from other students in anyway and they have always remained in the mainstream of the course.”

Harsh Todi from Assam, all of 24, has enrolled for a specialisation in modelling and is a wiz on the system. “I like doing concept art,” says Harsh showing some interesting sinewy sketches and modelling he’s done on his system that bank highly on concepts of horror. Vidya says he enjoys working on a storyboard in the first stage when they develop an animation film. He is hoping to go abroad for his masters. “I don’t like doing what other people tell me to do,” he says, with Anvitha helping interpret. And all four friends burst out laughing in agreement.

The students go through three to eight hours of theory a week, 15 hours of lab time and four assisted sessions, where they have a one-to-one interaction with their teachers. Once a week they also watch an animation film, after which the film is broken down to its very basics for further learning. The topic of film triggers some interest and a list of favourites follows, starting from Bambi which they have watched recently, through Shrek, Shark Tales and Madagascar and X-Men: The Last Stand.

Thirty-year-old Mathew Kurian is the oldest and the quietest of the lot. He has enrolled for the computer graphics course and hopes to zero in on his specialisation soon. He springs a surprise telling us how he’s completed his dentistry course and wants to try out medical animation and teeth modelling! “I wanted to do something enjoyable so I joined this course. I want to make cartoon films too.”

Anvitha, 23, the binding factor for the group, graduated in fine arts from the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath and is very interested in learning character animation and wants to learn this concept in detail. With an extensive portfolio of works and pages and pages of sketches tucked away already, she’s opted for a computer graphics programme with a specialisation in animation. She has worked on advertising campaigns and is eager to land a job, with the Ittina studios: “If they will give me a job,” she giggles.

Manu Ittina believes that given their talent and the kind of demand for animators in the industry today, anyone would be a fool to reject them on the basis of their impairment, or any other basis. Talent is the bottom line. Moreover, most communication today happens online or face-to-face in the animation industry, so it shouldn’t be a problem for them to be employed anywhere, he says, sounding very reassuring. And it shouldn’t be an issue at all, considering how none of these four talented youngsters, whose faces light up with the word `animation’ have any dearth of confidence in life’s limitless possibilities.

BHUMIKA K.

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Bangalore: University of Teesside, a leading British university at Middlesborough in northeast England, will train students of Takshaa Academy for the Artist in multimedia, animation and gaming under an agreement signed here Monday by the two partners.

In a statement, Teeside deputy vice-chancellor Cliff Allan said the partnership was aimed at producing graduates with proficiency in the fast-emerging areas of multimedia and gaming to meet the growing demand for skilled artists in the animation industry.

“The specialised courses will provide competitive advantage to Indian students in the employment market. Academy students can learn the skills in Bangalore or on progression to the university in Britain,” Allen noted.

Under the arrangement, the varsity will develop courses to be offered at the academy for its degree programmes and provide credits to achieve advanced entry into its programme at Teesside.

“With many international organisations outsourcing their IT requirements to India, we are keen on equipping our students with the requisite skills for quick absorption by the animation industry,” Takshaa chairman Manu Ittina said.

A national student survey last year rated the 78-year-old Teeside as a top varsity in art and design courses.

As a sister concern of the Bangalore-based Ittina design and architect group, Takshaa art students did projects for animation films such as “Shrek 2″, “Madagascar” and “Hercules” by working with Hollywood studios Dreamworks, Disney and Weta. IANS

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Manu Ittina

Interview of Manu Ittina in The Hindu

All animated about the future -
The Hindu – Sept 14th 2005

Manu Ittina dreams big for a 25-year-old. The animator, who has made his mark in Hollywood, is now dreaming of turning India into a destination for original animation.

You seen Marty the zebra making an announcement on the shell-microphone? Or Alex the lion making faces as he chokes and spits out grass he ate, in the animation film Madagascar? Then think Bangalore boy. It may be a jungle out there in Hollywood’s animation land, but Manu Ittina, at 25, is the Mowgli of this domain.

Young, ambitious, learning and experimenting, this animator is back in his hometown with big plans of setting up an animation school, a studio, and a film production company.

Manu grew up just like all of us, watching Tom and Jerry on TV and worshipping Jungle Book and its characters. But he never really understood what it would take to make such a film. So when the runaway hit Toy Story came along, Manu, who was 17, was totally blown away by the mind-boggling animation. Slogging away at his computer science P.U. course, he decided he won’t ever be able to forgive himself if he didn’t study animation. He must be feeling good now, having worked on superhits such as Madagascar and Shrek-2. MetroPlus catches up with this young Turk over a cuppa at Royal Orchid Central at Manipal Centre.

Microscopic numbers

“As Indians we don’t have much of an animation vocabulary,” says Manu. Even today, though there is a perception that a lot of Indians are tucked away in Hollywood’s studios, he says most of them are in the technical sections. “The community of character animators is still microscopic.”

And it is this thought that brings Manu back from the lucre and lure of Hollywood. “I really love animation and want India to be a destination of original and indigenous animated work, not just outsourcing. Outsourcing is a sign of short-sightedness.”

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